VOR Navigating

[Dr.bob7]

Ive learned as much as possible about flying. about the only thing ive missed is VOR navigating in the lesson in FSX the whole point is to get lined up with your heading from the VOR the indicator will get level then pass me by ill try a nothing turn about a 10 degree turn and i still miss it any one know why?

[Brett_Henderson]

Part 5 of the Sim Flight Training touches on VOR navigation...  We'll get into it more deeply later, when we start instrument training.


http://www.simviation.com/cgi-bin/yabb2 ... 1199323381


You have to understand what a VOR is, and what a radial is, and how the OBS  and CDI work..  Read that thread and please feel free to ask questions there  :)

[beaky]

First of all, remember: make sure the OBS is set for "to" if you are approaching the station ("to" the radial on the opposite side), or "from" if you are flying away from the station (along the radial on your side).
Also, bear in mind that as you get closer to a VOR, the radials are converging, so the needle will move a lot more. And at a great distance the signal; may not be reliable, even in MSFS... keep an eye out for that red flag on the OBS.

But how to properly intercept a radial once you know this stuff?

One thing not really covered in Brett's thread is the fine art of "bracketing".

In essence, you fly towards the radial and when the needle centers, you first turn to the mag heading that matches the radial you are trying to follow.
Since there's usually wind, holding this heading will cause the needle to deflect as you drift off the radial, so naturally you want to turn back towards it... but how much?

It would be dandy to have already calculated just what your correction should be, but quicker and easier to just bracket until you stumble on the best heading.
Here's how you do it:

Once it's clear you're drifting, turn ten to twenty degrees back towards the radial (towards the needle, assuming you have the OBS set up correctly for "to" or "from".
When you cross the radial again, turn back the other way, only this time go only halfway- in other words if your first corrective turn was 20 degrees to the right, go 10 degrees to the left with the next one.

As you cross the line again, turn back again, halving your heading change yet again.

Eventually you will nail it- usually takes only two or three turns.

Now of course you must note the new heading and maintain it... and if you fly on into an area where the wind is blowing differently, you may have to repeat this exercise.

[Brett_Henderson]

HEY !... you're getting into advanced VOR navigation; we'll get into THAT stuff later

[beaky]

HEY !... you're getting into advanced VOR navigation; we'll get into THAT stuff later  (oops.. this isn't my thread... sorry)  LOL    

Seriously though.. that IS good information, but I think it clouds the issue, and doesn't do much good until the whole concept of what VORs & radials are... and that VORs aren't just waypoints    :

Edit:  Learning to intercept a radial by bracketing can be problematic if you're still kinda foggy on fundementals...i.e. what happens if your first correction after drifting and turning back isn't enough to re-center the OBS ?  If you don't already have a good image and grasp of what's going on, you're gonna be a a point on that radial where the correction ratios will be dramatically different (if not past the VOR or out of its range.. or well past the intersection you might be groping for)...

Yeah, I know... in fact, looking again at drbob's question, I didn't really answer it.

I don't know why he's failing to re-acquire the beam... possibly because of the reasons you cited (like not understanding how it works in the first place).

[RickG]

This thread seemed to make it a whole lot less confusing for me, Dr.bob  Even has pictures  

http://www.simviation.com/cgi-bin/yabb2 ... 275768/3#3

[Dr.bob7]

yay pictures  :D


I did some training on my sim

my route: Airport: KAPA to HGO (VOR then to KITR (airport)

now istudied this is put my heading into the OBS and i was heading to the VOR the game put it in as a "from" instead of a to. how do i change this from to and from?

[Brett_Henderson]

This is covered in the threads we've mentioned...

[Dr.bob7]

i sorta phrased that wrong i did pick the corse from the VOR the needle was pointing from  had it set at 330 Degrees from the VOR the needle was far right as the course would naturally bebut i could never get lined up with it barely even budged in fact it didnt, but how would i change the to and from?

[Brett_Henderson]

[quote]i sorta phrased that wrong i did pick the corse from the VOR the needle was pointing from